LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has announced a partnership with fire protection associations, safety organizations and environmental sustainability groups to advance wildfire resilience in Lake County.
The partnership, called the Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaboration, provides financial support for local fuel reduction projects, a dynamic Community Wildfire Protection Plan specific to Lake County and an environmentally friendly biomass usage program.
“We are very proud of the Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative, which leverages the strengths of many organizations — each with unique skills and areas of focus — that together are dedicated to building capacity and improving wildfire resilience in Lake County. Through partnership and innovation, the work executed by this Collaborative will reduce the threat of wildfire and keep our hometowns safer,” said Dave Canny, vice president for PG&E’s North Coast Region.
PG&E launched the collaborative in the fall of 2023 with a $500,000 grant to the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, or CLERC, allowing them to expand its existing fuel reduction partnership with the Northshore Fire Protection District.
The grant has allowed Northshore Fire to increase the size of its crew and stabilize wages so that they can better respond to the vegetation management needs in the area.
Since September, Northshore Fire has completed several local wildfire safety projects, many of which are focused on creating defensible space between dwellings and vegetation.
A particular area of focus for Northshore Fire is vegetation management work around some of Lake County’s elderly and assisted living facilities that may not have the resources to execute the wildfire safety work themselves.
In addition to the wildfire safety work, PG&E grant will also help fund a dynamic Community Wildfire Protection Plan, or CWPP, that outlines community-specific wildfire resilience analytics for all of Lake County.
This component of the partnership utilizes computer modeling to predict wildfire pathways to inform community discussions on the most effective and strategic locations for fuel reduction projects.
This science-based approach to identifying project areas could eventually serve as the county-wide CWPP project list for Lake County.
The final component of the partnership focuses on biomass utilization. This wood management partnership uses a carbonator to collectively reduce the cost of managing wood waste, and create biochar, a climate-positive wood product, to be deployed in Lake County at strategic locations.
The Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative Partnership members include PG&E, the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, Northshore Fire Protection District, Lake County Fire Chiefs Association, California Fire Chiefs Association, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, US Forest Service and CalFire.
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- Lake County News reports
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